I started requiring a 3 month minimum and the panic clients disappeared

For a long time I let every client start month to month. It felt safer to offer. No commitment, cancel anytime, low pressure. What I actually got was panic.

Week two, a client would message asking why sales had not moved yet. Week three, they wanted the whole plan changed. By the end of month one, the ones who were going to leave left anyway, usually right before the content had any chance to build on itself. I was spending the first month of every engagement calming people down instead of doing the work.

Earlier this fall I changed one line in how I start. Three month minimum, then month to month after that. I explain it plainly: the first month is setup and testing, the second is where patterns show up, the third is the first month I can honestly judge. Nothing fancy, no lock in speech.

One prospect walked away over it and I was braced for more. None of the clients who signed have mentioned it since. Approvals got calmer. I plan a full quarter now instead of hoping each month renews. And the week two panic messages basically stopped, because nobody is deciding whether to quit while the first posts are still going out.

What I did not expect is that the minimum did not filter by budget. It filtered by patience. The clients who plan in quarters stay, and they are easier to do good work for.

Do you require a minimum term, or do you still start month to month? If you use a minimum, how long is it and how do you explain it?

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modern_mirror•6 days ago•16

We do the same thing. It’s almost impossible to make any meaningful changes or get results in the first month, as most of it is prep and experimentation

Month 2/3 is typically when we see the real results coming in

We also constantly stress to people that social media is an investment, and even though we know what we’re doing and have a great track record, it is not guaranteed success overnight. And we also make sure in the preliminary meetings that the clients aren’t trying to use us as their ONLY marketing strategy. Social media can def help you grow your business, but it can’t be the end all be all for 90% of brands.

ommiles•6 days ago•2

giving them a date for when results get judged probably does more than the minimum itself. the week two sales messages are mostly people not knowing when they're allowed to worry

smr2002•6 days ago•2

What service are you offering? I understand this for organic social but for paid ads you can tell if they're working very quickly...

Jrpharoah_•6 days ago•2

Ai slop post

yelhsaelokkin•6 days ago•1

yup, been there. the clients that have seen the most success with me are the ones who stick it out past the initial building phase where it’s the most comfortable. i tell them, we don’t have a strategy because you have no foundation. build the foundation then we build the strategy. we build the foundation by experimenting and gathering data. flops don’t exist when you are just testing.

castellaniangelo•5 days ago•1

That filter is doing real work. Panic clients usually want a miracle in two weeks, and a three month floor forces the conversation onto what can actually change in that window. I'd keep it, and make the first month deliverable very concrete so they feel progress early. Something like a baseline audit in week one and a clear content calendar by week two. The ones who push back hard on the minimum are often the ones who'd churn at day 20 anyway.

ENTJ-EA•5 days ago•1

Where can I learn more about social media marketing strategy like this?

cortezz-NY•6 days ago•1

Same experience here, just with restaurant and bar clients instead of agencies. Month one for a local spot is mostly plumbing: cleaning up their Google and IG profiles, getting a usable photo library, finding posting times that fit actual service hours. There's nothing honest to judge yet.

Your setup/test/judge framing is exactly it. I tell mine flat out: don't judge anything until week six, and if I can't show you where you started, fire me. Saying that out loud felt risky the first time but it killed most of the week-two "why isn't this working yet" texts.

For the person asking what month one actually delivers: they get a baseline doc (follower counts, reach, review velocity, what their busy nights look like) and the quarter plan, that's it. One caveat on my end: if there's any paid spend involved I still show numbers at 30 days, because that's money going out the door and they deserve an early read. Organic gets the three months, paid gets a monthly checkpoint. Nobody's pushed back on that split so far.

NiceSatisfaction7870•4 days ago•1

I started requiring a 3 month minimum the 'give them a date when results get judged' point in here is so real. I've only been on the client side of tiny stuff (college fest pages lol) and nobody ever told us what month 1 was supposed to look like, so we judged everything on week 2 likes and panicked. do you hand clients a written month-by-month plan upfront or just explain it on the call?

creatorctrl•6 days ago•1

What do you show clients at the end of that first month?

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